New Moodle grade transfer plugin to be released

We are pleased to announce the forthcoming release of a new Moodle plugin designed to facilitate the automatic transfer of grades from Moodle assignments into SAMIS.

Developed jointly by the CLT and Computing Services in response to academic staff requests, this development seeks to streamline the transfer of grades between the two systems, reducing the administrative overhead and minimising the risk of error associated with dual data entry points.

The teams have worked closely with academic and administrative staff from across the institution to ensure that the plugin is both easy to use and robust, and, following a successful pilot, we are pleased to announce that the first version of the plugin will shortly be made available to Unit Convenors. We are already working on extending the functionality to cover additional popular assessment types.

In order to support the delivery of the new functionality, we would like to draw your attention to a change that will be affecting all Moodle courses when the plugin is rolled out on 1st March 2018:

From this date, staff listed as Unit Convenors in SAMIS will be distinguished from other Moodle ‘Teachers’ and will instead be given a new ‘Teacher+’ role. Those with a Teacher+ role in Moodle will have access to use the new Grade Transfer functionality, and they will also be listed as the course owner on the Moodle home page.

There are several reasons behind this change:

There is a need for increased granularity of role in order that additional permissions can be allocated appropriately. As Unit Convenors are responsible for unit marks, it is necessary to limit the ability to transfer marks to these individuals.

This granularity of role (reflecting existing institutional structures) will be increasingly important as the systems that support learning and teaching at Bath become more closely aligned over time.

Alongside the allocation of increased permissions, we are also taking the opportunity to respond to academic staff and student feedback regarding the reduction of the visual ‘clutter’ associated with displaying multiple Moodle ‘Teachers' on the user home page.

This should also lead to increased clarity over who is responsible for individual units.

We would like to reassure staff that whilst the Teacher+ role will have the additional permissions required to transfer grades to SAMIS, there are no other changes to the way in which this role will work, and no other roles will be affected.

If you feel that the incorrect Unit Convenor is displayed, this is most likely because the incorrect member of staff is identified as the Unit Convenor in SAMIS. In this case, please contact your Faculty/School administrative staff to get the SAMIS record updated.

A range of support materials have been produced to support the introduction of the Grade Transfer plugin and these are available here. Faculty/School Learning Technologists will be communicating the developments and supporting the roll-out at a local level, and will be on hand to assist with any questions that staff may have.

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